


We Have Lost

by ReneeoftheStars



Category: Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-02
Updated: 2017-10-02
Packaged: 2019-01-08 00:54:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12243978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReneeoftheStars/pseuds/ReneeoftheStars
Summary: It has been a long time since Barriss Offee was imprisoned for bombing the Jedi Temple. Not one to break, she has survived it. One day, she receives an unexpected visit from one she thought long gone from her life.





	We Have Lost

**Author's Note:**

> Summary courtesy of an admin at tumblr blog "Finish-the-clone-wars"  
> Written for finish-the-clone-wars' writing wednesday prompt: Prison

Another criminal was approaching, and this one didn’t feel like he could be turned away with a simple Force suggestion. He stalked forward, working himself up to get his adrenaline flowing, ready to send bodies flying.

Barriss Offee allowed herself a faint smile. _I’ll have to show him how it’s done._

“What’re you smirking at, Jedi?” the Gormak snarled, stalking towards her. The few other prisoners that had been gathered at the far end of her table scattered, abandoning their measly lunches to avoid the rage of the towering figure.

_I am not a Jedi anymore,_ she thought. _I’ll never seek to claim that status again. Traitors and hypocrites, the lot of them._

“Nothing much,” Barriss answered, taking another spoonful of the runny mash. “Merely seeing how close you think you can get before I’ll stop you.”

The Gormak guffawed, taking another step. “You can’t stop me. You’re nothing but a child.”

“A moment ago you called me ‘Jedi’. There are no children in the Jedi Order, don’t you know? Only pawns.”

The red frills that ringed his face shuddered as his features twisted into a scowl. “I got no interest in your grudges. I got my own to settle. Was a Jedi that got me in here. And since you’re the only Jedi available –” He made a grand sweeping gesture at the mess hall, and Barriss let her gaze wander about the wide space.

 This prison certainly made one feel small and defenseless. The arching ceilings, ringed with auto-cannons and shock troopers, watching every movement of every prisoner, fingers hovering just above the trigger – it made Barriss feel trapped. That was the point, of course, and she had to admit, the architects who created the Republic Judiciary Central Detention Center certainly knew their trade. However, that trapped feeling manifested in all beings here at one time or other, most often resulting in frayed nerves and twitching fingers anxious to pick a fight.

 “Find someone else to settle your score,” Barriss advised. “You’ll simply embarrass yourself.”

The Gormak’s massive hands clenched and he rumbled as he took two steps forward. He drew back a fist –

Barriss raised her arm and felt the Force surge through her, wrapping around the criminal and holding him in place. He grunted in surprise, eyes narrowing in rage, arm still raised.

“You had your chance.” Barriss shoved with the Force, and the Gormak hurtled through the air, colliding with a Trandoshan halfway across the hall. The two toppled to the floor and were up in an instant, snarling at each other.

“I’ll kill you, Jedi scum!” the Gormak roared, backing away from the reptilian being.

“You can try,” said Barriss, mostly to herself as she took a drink of water.

The shock troopers were already descending. “Break it up!” One of them barked, brandishing an electrostaff at the Gormak. “Back off!”

The criminal seethed and teetered for a moment, his red eyes darting between Barriss and the weapon. Anger coiled around him, and Barriss braced herself for another assault, but he turned abruptly, making for a group of beings at the other end of the hall.

It did not escape her notice that four red-plated troopers had surrounded her, warily extending their electrostaffs. The captain of this particular group approached, blaster trained on her. Barriss met his gaze.

“Had fun with your Force trick, scum? You wanna see how well it works on us?”

“That won’t be necessary.”

“Damn right it won’t.” The trooper gestured with the blaster. “Get up. Free time’s over.”

Barriss managed not to sigh, but with difficulty. Instead, she set down her spoon and rose slowly, so as not to startle the troops. These Coruscant clones did not have the same innate respect, loyalty, or admiration for the Jedi that their brothers on the front lines did. She appreciated that they weren’t enamored with the mere concept of Jedi, and seemed to actively dislike them. It suited her just fine; she was just another orange jumpsuit in a sea of beings who had brought harm to others.

Electrostaffs still humming, the squad escorted her down a long tunnel back to the echoing holding chambers. She stepped aboard the platform and was lifted high into the air. Her isolated chamber was almost at the top of the domed holding cells, and reinforced by a particularly potent ray shield.

Once she stepped into the room, the shield sprang up behind her, and she felt the guards’ immediate relief. They were afraid of her. It hung onto their armor like an odor, agitating the inmates around them. Barriss knew she could kill them if she wanted to. But she had no desire to end their lives; she was content with her imprisonment. After all, she had already gone through that which she wanted all Jedi to go through – a trial for their crimes, and a fitting sentence.

The Council had expelled her from the Jedi Order, and as such, she was now subject to the laws and penalties of the Republic. _Just like Ahsoka._ It had come as a surprise, then, that she was not sentenced to death. The prosecutor had been some other Admiral of the Republic forces, rather than the grudge-bearing Tarkin that had charged Ahsoka, and she had been more than happy to sentence Barriss to a life term in the high-security prison. _There are worse fates._

Alone in her cell, she sat on the floor, folding her legs beneath her and settling into meditation. She found she enjoyed the time alone; it allowed her to sift through her thoughts, contemplating the hypocrisy that was the Jedi Order. Not for the first time, she considered how blind they all were – to plunge through the galaxy, sending troops to their deaths without a second thought, obediently following the Senate’s whims and tantrums. The Council claimed they would not sacrifice their morals to achieve victory, and so they allowed the war to drag on, letting worlds fall one by one to the dark side. They were only prolonging the inevitable ruin of the Republic. And so many more would die before that happened.

After some time of mediation, a tremor shook the Force. Barriss opened her eyes and frowned. Something… _bad_ had happened. Some shift that she could not understand. A moment later, she became aware of two shock troopers returning, the platform rising towards her. _It can’t be time for the evening meal yet…_

And then she felt it: an awful, familiar, warm presence in the Force.

Barriss leapt to her feet and spun around just as the platform connected with her chamber and the ray shield dropped.

“Five minutes,” the clone said curtly, stepping back and allowing a Mirialan woman to pass into the cell.

“Of course, Captain,” Luminara Unduli said quietly. With effort, she directed her gaze to the girl before her. “Apprentice.”

“Master.” The word felt heavy on Barriss’ tongue.

Her former Master looked more tired than Barriss had ever seen her. The lines beneath her eyes aged her far beyond her years, and her mouth was tightly pursed. Could she truly have changed so much? It had been several months, but even so…

“I thought I knew what I would say to you once I was here,” Luminara mused. “But now I’m not so sure.”

“I didn’t think you’d ever come,” Barriss said.

Luminara nodded. “I wasn’t going to. The Council advised against it – they do not approve of me being here.”

“Then why are you?” The words came out harsher than Barriss intended.

The older woman was silent for a moment while she thought. “When I first began training you, I believed that I would prepare myself enough to let you go. That I would allow the time to come and go as it needed to, and while I would mourn, I would celebrate you.” Her focused sharpened, her voice taking on an edge. “But not like this. This is not the end I saw for you.”

“I had to do something. I could no longer be silent and participate in the actions the Council demanded.”

“You directly caused the death of others, apprentice. You almost caused a fellow Padawan to be executed for your crimes.”

“And the Jedi allow other beings to die by the thousands and believe they are doing nothing wrong.”

 “We are fighting for freedom!”

“And what of the systems that seceded?” Barriss demanded. “The ones who see that the Republic is stagnant, that the Senate is full of fools dragging their feet in an attempt to line their own pockets. You aren’t allowing them to be free to establish their own government that isn’t corrupt! You’re forcing them to remain chained to a system that disregards the poverty of its people in favor of their own wealth! How is that freedom?”

Luminara’s reply was heated. “And the droid armies lead by Dooku’s minions? The armies that overrun peaceful settlements with no thought to survivors or cultures?”

Barriss shook her head and sat stiffly on the edge of her hard bunk. “If the Senate had offered aid to the seceding systems, they wouldn’t have had to rely on Dooku’s forces to ensure their separation.” 

“You are being naïve,” Luminara scolded. “This war is more complex than that.”

“But no one’s thinking it through! There are so many details that have been taken for granted, so many risks taken without any second thought. And we’re supposed to accept it.”

Barriss turned away from her former Master. Her blood boiled that Luminara did not see the injustice of it all. How could she _defend_ the spiraling Order? _This_ was the woman she had admired for so long? Barriss had craved Luminara’s approval, longed to be seen as competent and wise. _And this is where we stand._ The tightness of the cell seemed to press around her, shortening her breath. Barriss turned back and stared down the older Mirialan. “I think it’s time for you to leave.”

Luminara’s lips parted as though she were going to say something, but then she paused. A frown creased her brow and she glanced away, as though concentrating on a far-away sound. Barriss felt it then too; a shudder in the Force, long and continuous, growing each moment like the death throes of some wounded animal. Something was very wrong.

Without another word, her former Master turned and began walking back to the waiting platform. The clone captain had one hand raised to his helmet, most likely listening to some comm chatter.

“Alive. Very well. It will be done, my lord,” he said suddenly. He nodded to his companion, and they both raised their blasters.

“Captain, what’s –”

Luminara got no further. Several blue rings of energy erupted from the ends of the weapons, striking her in the chest, one after another. She collapsed on the floor of the cell, stunned.

“Master!” Barriss jumped forward, but fell to her knees as the captain hit her with a single jolt of energy.

The troopers rushed forward and seized Luminara, dragging her onto the platform and raising the ray shield behind them. Barriss lurched forward to see the platform rise to the highest chamber. She watched, wide-eyed, as the soldiers lowered the shield – even more complex than the one that held Barriss – and tossed the Jedi Master in.

As the clones re-shielded the cell and began their decent, Barriss’ legs gave out and she crumpled back to the ground. As she fixed her eyes on the cell above, the trembling in the force growing, and the realization crashed down on her in one moment of fascinated horror.

_Jedi are dying._


End file.
